Thursday, January 16, 2014

Hey folks! I know a lot of you out there have been commenting about wanting to start etsy shops (or similar) because your thrift store finds are starting to take over! I have done a couple posts about what I've been selling in my antique booth (read them here & here). I find that information helpful, but it is not necessarily relevant to what is selling in other parts of the country. This is where online comes in. It really helps give a good idea of what is selling here in the US (and internationally, for me, in a couple of instances).

Last year alone I sold over 40 different Ball or Atlas mason jars. It has helped me to link up with shops that use mason jars as props in their item's photos. If I send them a jar for a prop, they link to my store in the item's listing. I have been doing this for a couple of years.

Coffee Mugs

Last year I sold over 20 different coffee mugs.Several went international to South Korea and Japan.

Salt & Pepper Shakers

The weirder, the better. I sold 6 sets of s&p shakers last year.

Pyrex

I think this one is fairly obvious. I sold 9 pieces last year in my etsy shop.

I expect all of my stats to go down this year, since I'm not selling as much online as I have the past few years, due to my antique booth space.

I sell many individual ornaments. They have to be pretty special to sell individually.

And boxes of ornaments.

Strands of mercury glass beads.

And lots of knee huggers!

As you can see, I may not have had as great of stats as I did in my main etsy shop, but I had more orders and sold more individual items in my holiday etsy shop. I encourage you to jump on this bandwagon if you haven't already. Sales are slow February-June, but usually pick up during the "Christmas in July," before tapering off again for a couple of months. I'm hit hardest the week or two after Halloween each year. Even harder than the week or two after Thanksgiving.

I expect (read: HOPE) my stats will improve in 2014 for this etsy shop. Here's how I'm doing so far:

My username wascreated when I was an undergrad at IU (Indiana University). I first used it to sell clothes, etc. to make extra cash to go to the bars. Although I have 2 official Bachelor's degrees from IU, I still claim that I majored in Moderate Social Drinking. And I still love a good 25c mug of cheap beer. Who doesn't?

2014 Stats:
82 Items Sold

I took 2 separate months off because I was getting sick of eBay. And to tell you the truth, I am still not a very big fan. But, there are certain things that will get you top dollar on eBay versus etsy or in my booth.

I sold 15 pieces of Pyrex on eBay. Several of those were full bowl sets. In terms of other vintage kitchen items I sold 4 lots of Hazel Atlas items, and 5 pieces of Fire King.

Monday, January 13, 2014

I was hit hard the last few months with booth sales, which isn't a bad thing. However, it is so hard to restock in the wintertime. No garages sales. Fewer estate sales. Auctions here and there. And the prices. Oh, the prices are crazy! We're talking double retail in some situations. Even Goodwill has caught on to the crazy price craze. And not just on collectibles.

So, I risked going to the only good auction within 100 miles of me. It was all dealers. It was hard to get good merchandise. Luckily they did box lots and not a lot of folks dug through to see what was inside. So I got lucky on a few things.

For some reason, only 3 weeks out from Christmas and the prices on vintage Christmas has dropped immensely. That was a surprise. I mean, look at all of this! And Santa works!

Another item where the graphics drew me in. Yeah there's a few missing pieces, so I'll sell them as a lot.

I intended to buy just the copper coffee pot and tea kettle. I got a few other goodies. Surprisingly, aluminum ice cream scoops sell well for me. And weird s&p shakers, like these Easter Island heads (Moai), also sell well.

I've been looking all over for you guys! Where have all the vintage & even slightly vintage cameras been hiding? You guys are my biggest sellers next to Pyrex.

Speaking of box lots... Here's what come in them nowadays. Dishwasher damaged Pyrex with 2 salvageable lids, some neat-o Made in Japan bookends, and other misc stuff.

Look! More cameras! Yay! I had to buy these 3 off of some guy. They came in a box lot and he wanted the other items. Thank goodness. The wood-handled blow dryer actually works! And aren't those the sweetest sewing kits? They're marked made in Japan and probably from the 50s or 60s.

My most unusual purchase - these stack of new old stock turquoise striped popcorn tubs. So many endless possibilities. Oh, and the hoard of melmac.

So it continues. Also, a full set of aqua handled Ecko utensils.

Easily my favorite purchase of the day. Patchwork (baby) quilt #1.

Aren't these kitties precious? If anyone is good at dating material, so that I could potentially date these quilts, please contact me.

Patchwork (baby) quilt #2.

These will be heading to the booth this weekend. After I endure crazy first week of spring semester. Back to the craziness!

Friday, January 3, 2014

So, I had a birthday recently. 27. I ate cheesecake. And I took the day off of work and decided to spend it updating my booth. Which turned 2 months old. I tried to switch it up a bit. Here we go....

My attempt at a Valentine's Day display.

I put all of my red and pink items as I had in my

booth in the display in the very front of my booth.

I am so happy that a bunch of my pink band Pyrex

finally sold. This is all I have left.

These shelves feel a little bare.

Even though they're packed

as full as I can get them.

My new table display. Typewriter for typing

Valentine's Day love letters and a pink phone

for calling the one you love. And holiday hankies.

But... this typewrite is something special.

A cursive typewriter.

That didn't work when I bought it.

And I fixed it myself.

*Pats self on back*

I really think the backs of these shelves

need some vintage wallpaper. Or a

good coat of paint.

I tried out the panorama function on my camera to try

and give you a a full booth perspective.

On a happy note... I got paid from the booth too. So let's see what sold last month:

DATE

DAY OF THE WEEK

ITEM

12/03/13

Tuesday

pyrex casserole

12/03/13

Tuesday

2 vintage ornaments

12/03/13

Tuesday

vintage ornament

12/05/13

Thursday

salt and pepper

12/07/13

Saturday

hi santa stocking

12/07/13

Saturday

homestead pyrex casserole

12/07/13

Saturday

cookie cutter snowman

12/10/13

Tuesday

ceramic christmas tree

12/10/13

Tuesday

gary screw bolt crate

12/11/13

Wednesday

clabber girl tin

12/11/13

Wednesday

nabisco tin

12/13/13

Friday

lustreware pepper shaker

12/13/13

Friday

santa mug

12/13/13

Friday

vintage santa doll

12/14/13

Saturday

polaroid land camera

12/14/13

Saturday

Bell & howell movie camera

12/14/13

Saturday

turquoise HA mug

12/15/13

Sunday

2 vintage ornaments

12/16/13

Monday

7 jello molds

12/17/13

Tuesday

pair empire blowmold snowmen

12/17/13

Tuesday

2 putz houses

12/17/13

Tuesday

2 putz houses

12/17/13

Tuesday

nancy drew book

12/17/13

Tuesday

vintage ornament

12/18/13

Wednesday

nancy drew book

12/18/13

Wednesday

2 boxes shiny brite ornaments

12/18/13

Wednesday

hankie

12/19/13

Thursday

hazel atlas cream sugar

12/19/13

Thursday

pyrex butterfly gold creamer

12/19/13

Thursday

ceramic head santa

12/19/13

Thursday

1968 empire santa blowmold

12/20/13

Friday

vintage ornament

12/20/13

Friday

5 cookie cutters

12/20/13

Friday

blue white salt and pepper

12/20/13

Friday

dancing santa

12/21/13

Saturday

8pc AH snack set

12/21/13

Saturday

pyrex butterprint casserole

12/22/13

Sunday

oil lamp

12/22/13

Sunday

aluminum ice cream scoop

12/22/13

Sunday

vintage ornament

12/23/13

Monday

planters peanut tin

12/23/13

Monday

4 med pyrex pink band plates

12/23/13

Monday

4 lg pyrex pink band plates

12/23/13

Monday

pyrex pink band veg bowl

12/27/13

Friday

santa head blowmold

12/28/13

Saturday

FK vase

12/28/13

Saturday

haunted bridge book

12/28/13

Saturday

red handle sifter

12/29/13

Sunday

4 pink HA dinner plates

12/29/13

Sunday

jadeite sugar bowl

12/30/13

Monday

2 bottle brush wreaths

12/30/13

Monday

2 vintage ornaments

12/30/13

Monday

2 vintage ornaments

12/30/13

Monday

2 boxes shiny brite ornaments

12/30/13

Monday

tree topper

It was another good month at the booth, so no complaints here. January is going to be a long month with no holidays, so it may be a little rough. Hope the V-Day display helps.

We're preparing for a massive snow storm to hit here in Central Indiana tomorrow evening through Sunday. They're predicting around 12 inches. The mall owner sent emails to all the dealers letting us know he will close, if necessary. That for sure doesn't help sales.

So with all of this in mind... I'm trying to ramp up the neglected etsy shop before I head back for spring semester on January 13th. It has gave way to the Christmas etsy shop for the last 2 months.

Time to go stockpile bread, milk, and eggs. Ya know, in case I want to make french toast.